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Jane Weaver’s 11th album, Flock
Album review: The Liverpool and Widnes-raised artist returns with a mesmeric and uplifting 11th album that takes a variety of elements - electronica, psychedelia and acid folk morphing into fabulous alternative pop record that really takes flight
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As Days Get Dark, Arab Strap’s seventh album, and their first for 16 years
Album review: Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton’s first album together since 2005 is as brilliant as ever – a mischievous, brooding, blackly humorous, whisperingly sinister and sweary exploration of love, sex, addiction, exploitation and death wrapped in beautiful, poetic music
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Yol, meaning road, is Altin Gün’s third album
Album review: Wonderful third album by the Amsterdam-based Turkish, Dutch, Indonesian and British band who infuse traditional Turkish songbook material with elecro-pop, funk and disco sounds in a way that feels authentic and uplifting
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Katy Kirby’s Cool Dry Place
Album review: Beautiful debut of low-key acoustic simplicity by the singer-songwriter from Texas who is now based in Nashville, with a soft, quiet voice that resonates with understated profundity
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Lael Neale’s Acquainted With Night
Album review: The folk-pop singer’s charming, melancholy LP has a rather beautiful ghostly, disembodied quality, lacking only old ‘78 vinyl crackles, but delicately gorgeous with her clear, distinctive voice, guitar and Omnichord accompaniment
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High time for some the days of disco … SG Lewis
Album review: Aiming to capture a full-on mainstream club and disco feel, the British producer’s new LP mixes light funk and soul flavours that very much borrow from the Daft Punk and Chic cookbook
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Virginia Wing’s fourth album Private Life
Album review: Offbeat, eclectic, meandering electronica with oodles of oddball sax and percussion mark this absorbing and original fourth album by the Manchester trio with commentary addressing issues from consumer capitalism to social media and misogyny
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Shopping dilemma: from the video for Free From Gravity
Album review: This fourth LP by the Edinburgh-formed, London-based art-rock quartet contains many of their signature sounds but also contains space-travelling new textures, such as breathy guest vocals by Charlotte Gainsbourg
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Mush’s second album Lines Redacted
Album review: The second album by the Leeds-based band extends their distinctive, sonically idiosyncratic style of excellent angular art-rock with mind-bendingly alternative guitar riffs and scales, sharp lyrics and the oddly likeable nasal delivery of songwriter Dan Hyndman
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Tamara Lindeman of The Weather Station
Album review: This majestic LP of superb musical maturity.by the Canadian singer-songwriter Tamara Lindeman has an undercurrent climate change theme, with deft piano, drums, strings, sax, guitar and a sound sometimes reminiscent of mid-80s Talk Talk
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Album review: Liberating, refreshing, eccentric, with a playfully light touch and flourishes of flute and feminist theory garnish this solo debut by the singer who works with Holly Herndon singer and is half of Italian synth new wave duo Itaca
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Mask
Album review: The south London quartet’s second album has is double-edged woozily beguiling in music and caustic in lyrics, a mixture of shoegaze, postpunk, and electronica with a distinctive sound produced by the groundbreaking Dan Carey
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The Future Bites
Album review: The British singer-songwriter originally known for the 80s psych-prog band Porcupine Tree returns with his sixth solo album, an electronica odyssey caustically exploring aspects of how the human brain has evolved in the internet era
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Ashnikko aka Ashton Nicole Casey
Album review: Like an x-rated character from Avatar, the 24-year-old American singer and rapper Ashton Nicole Casey’s burst-on-the-scene full debut is full of blueness, giggles, sass and sex, admired by guests Grimes, Princess Nokia and Kelis
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Kiwi Jr.’s second album Cooler Returns, out on Sub Pop
New album: Clever, wry, satirical, topical, inventive upbeat indie by the Toronto quartet with their second album following Soccer Money, who have echoes of Pavement and The Modern Lovers, but with added vim and vigour, keyboards and harmonica
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Pearl Charles: perfect reflection of another era
Album review: An uncannily perfect reflection but very enjoyable throwback to mainstream singer-songwriter pop from the mid 1970s in the style of ABBA, Carly Simon, Carol King and more by the 29-year-old from LA
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Pom Poko
Album review: The postpunk Indie quartet from Norway return with their second LP after 2019’s Birthday with more wonderfully energetic work in this short, sharp selection of 10 three-minute songs
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Barry Gibb
Album review: Surviving Gibb brother Barry is joined by a host of country stars from including Dolly Parton, Alison Krauss and Keith Urban in a celebration of great songwriting, but is this sublime or a safe, saccharine 70s indulgence?
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Great albums of 2020: clockwise from top: Agnes Obel, Phoebe Bridgers, Bob Dylan and Sault’s Untitled (Rise)
Albums of 2020 roundup: Out of crisis comes great art. A year of lockdowns, no gigs, alternative sounds, experimentation and surprises. This is the second half of our roundup of favourite albums of 2020. Part 1 was here
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Lianne La Havas, Fiona Apple and Yves Tumor are among three artists who have released outstanding LPs
Albums of 2020 roundup: A year of lockdowns, alternative sounds, experimentation and surprises. This is the first half two roundups of a total over 50 favourite albums of the year that musicians stayed at home. And here’s Part 2.
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